Matei is on the whole not a morning person. The morning (especially a school morning) is an assault on his dignity and human rights; therefore morning is The Enemy and must be resisted with a mix of Violent Struggles and Peaceful Demonstrations ( Read more... )

My son was born into stormy times, between two bereavements, at the end of a month of immense financial and social stress. His birth was attended by anxious ghosts from the past- a hovering family anxiety and the ghosts of the lost boys, uncles and great-uncles and my stillborn brothers. We were thrilled and ecstatic at his safe arrival, riding the ( Read more... )

Matei, running around and pretending to shoot webs from his wrists:“ I am Spiderman! I.AM.THE.AMAZING.SPIDERMAN!”

“are you Spiderman?” I ask his sister who is running after him, making theatrical hand flourishes and miscellaneous grand onomatopeic utterances of her own.

“No,” she says, offended. “I am a mouse!”

Helena and I are in Belgrade (Matei joining us later on today) where we have been frolicking in the heat and having a wonderful time despite watching Djokovic painful loss at Wimbledon yesterday. Helena incidentally only proved what astar she was by entertaining herself while adults were glued to tennis, and then going around patting us on the head ( Read more... )

Today my mum accompanied Matei while she fruitlessly attempted to get her prescription filled, and returned home very impressed by the new vocabulary he had heard.

"We met so many wankers today!" he informed us brightly. "First we met two, and then we went to another shop and met another one!"
"How many wankers was that in total?"
"Three!"
"Well

A few days ago I heard Z singing the following ditty to Helena as he changed her nappy ( Read more... )

Prologue: After picking up Matei from school I explain how we're going to be making some Father's day cards for Z but how it's important to not tell him so that on Sunday he can get a lovely surprise. Matei indicates assent and understanding and cards are duly created with only minor spillage of paint and shrieking ( Read more... )

The other day I was telling off Matei about some misdemeanour, when he broke in with:
"Mummy, come nearer to Christ! Forgive!"

"Please" was one of Matei's first words adn he used it often. It certainly helped smooth the ripples caused by his other favourite word, the powerful syllable "Nuh!" which conveyed the depth of the contempt he had for ideas like brushing his teeth and putting his shoes on ( Read more... )

I have been offline for what seems like forever due to Dead Router Trauma (a dark, dark time) but now things are restored so I can go back to gorging myself on the internet and writing up all the things my son comes out with ( Read more... )